Apparatus for sorting cards



June J. P. DUANE 2,284,808

" APPARATUS FOR sonune CARDS Filed Jan. 22, 1941 (/0622 PDzzane INVENTORATTORNEY Patented June 2, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FORsoa'rmc. CARDS John P. Duane, Wilmington, Pei. Application January 22,1941, Serial No. 375,382 (Cl. 129-16.1)

- 12 Claims.

This invention relates to an apparatus for sorting cards and, moreparticularly, to an apparatus adapted for sorting cards of the typehaving a plurality of perforations adjacent at least one edge thereof,the perforations being adapted to be slotted to the edge of the card forthe purpose hereinafter described.

Cards of the general type herein considered are in common use in filingsystems today. The fundamental arrangement and design of such cards aredisclosed in United States Patent 1,544,172, patented June 30, 1925. Asexplained in that patent, the cards may be flat sheets, talleys, checks,or the like, made of any material.

, Ordinary paper filing cards of rectangular shape are most commonlyused. An improvement on the design of such cards is disclosed in UnitedStates Patent 1,739,087, patented December 10, 1929.

For present purposes it is sufficient to understandthat the hereinconsidered cards are usual- "ly rectangular in shape *andad'jacent oneor more edges of each card are perforations, each perforation relatingto a particular classification.

When a card belongs to a certain classification represented by aparticular perforation, the card is slotted from that perforation out tothe edge of the card. Thepurpose of this is that all cards tion isrestricted to those classifications represented by slotted perforationsadjacent one edge of the card. There has been no device heretoforeavailable which permits, with a single opera- 5 tion, a sort of cardsfalling into both a classification represented by a slotted perforationadjacent one edge of the card and a second classification represented bya slotted perforation adjacent an adjoining edge of the card and thishas 10 been a severe handicap in'the practical use of l5 paratus forsorting out cards of the type described above. A further object is toprovide such an apparatus that will sort the cards much more readily,quickly, and reliably than the devices heretofore used for this purpose.A further object is to provide such an apparatus particularly belongingin that particular classification may readily be sorted out from a largepack of cards J0 readily drop out of a pack lifted by a rod passedthrough that perforation in the whole pack, it has been found in actualpractice that there is considerable difficulty in getting the slottedcards to fall out of the pack when using the rod devices heretoforeavailable. Under certain conditions, as where a large pack of cards mustbe sorted, and this is usually the case, or the cards are relativelylarge in size, this difficulty is greatly aggravated and constitutes aserious objection to the use of these cards in filing systems.

Heretofore, a single rod provided with a handle or a manually helddevice adapted to grip two or more rods, has been used for sorting thesecards. With thesingle rod, only a sort of cards falling in a singleclassification can be made in one operation. With the device holding twoor adapted for efficiently sorting large packs of cards and cards ofrelatively large size. A still further object is to provide an apparatusthat will permit, in one operation and without disturbing the order ofthe cards not sorted out, a sort of cards falling in two classificationsrepresented by perforations adjacent adjoining edges of the cards. Otherobjects will be apparent from the description of the invention givenhereinafter.

The above objects are accomplished in ac cordance with the presentinvention by the use of an apparatus which, broadly, comprises thecombination of a suitable base, an upright member mounted thereomand arod carried by said upright member and adapted to pass through theperforations in a pack of the herein considered cards, said rodextending at an angle preferably slightly declined from the horizontalwhen passed through a perforation in a pack of cards and bearing theweight of said pack, and

said upright member being so constructed that its upper end may bevibrated.

The invention further and more specifically is resides in thecombination of a base, an upright mounted in vertical position on saidupright and a vertically adjustable, said board being provided :71) witha plurality of holes in a specific arrangemore rods, the sort of cardswith a single opera ment hereinafter described, and a plurality of rodsadapted to be mounted. in said holes and extend therefrom at an angleslightly declined from the horizontal.

The invention will be more specifically described with reference to theaccompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus constructed in accordancewith a specific embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the apparatus shown in Fig.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, a pack ofcards being illustrated after having been sorted;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of part of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1with a pack of cards in position for a so-called angle-sort; and

Fig. 5 illustrates a card of the type adapted to be sorted by thepresent invention.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, reference numeral I denotesa base which is preferably made of wood although it may be made of metalor composition. Upon the base I is ,mounted the upright member 2 whichmust be relatively springy material; spring steel is preferred. Avertical slot 3 is provided in the upright member 2. The board 4 isfastened upon the upright member 2 by means of bolts 5 fixed in theboard 4 and passing through the slot 3 and cooperating with the wingednuts 6 (see Figs. 2 and 3).

By the construction so far described, it will be seen that the upper endof the upright memher 2 and the board 4 are free to vibrate and may bereadily vibrated by manually bending the board 4 and upright member 2out of their normally vertical position and suddenly releasing them.Also, the board 4 may be readily adjusted vertically.

The board 4 is provided with a plurality of holes designated generallyby the reference nuperforation in a pack of cards to be sorted and isbearing the weight of said pack, shall extend at an angle slightlydeclined from horizontal. This may be accomplished by boring the holes 8in the board 4 at an angle slightly declined from the horizontal or byhaving the diameter of the holes 8 exceed the diameter of the rods 9just enough so that the weight of the cards will decline the rodslightly. It may also be accomplished by using relatively flexible rodswhich will be declined from the horizontal slightly by the weight of thecards even though the rods may actually be mounted so that they extendhorizontally or slightly inclined upward from the horizontal when freeof the weight of the pack of cards.

A plate I0 is mounted on the base I and is provided on its surface withscorings running par-' allel to the board 4 and an upturned end I Irunning at right angles to the board .4 and located adjacent one side ofthe base I. The scoring in the plate) keep cards as they are sorted out,from slipping and the end I I functions as a buffer plate to keep thecards in position. A buffer plate I2 is also mounted on the base I andruns parallel to the board 4. This buffer plate I2 likewise helps tokeep the cards in position and to prevent them from coming off the endof the rods 9. For ease of manipulation, the upturned end II should be,relatively low while the height of the buffer plate II should beapproximately equal to half the width of the cards to be sorted.

In Fig. 5 is shown a card of the type herein considered. It is providedwith perforations I! extending around all four sides and eachperforation is adapted to be slotted out to the edge of the card asshown at I6 and II. The cards may be perforated only along one edge butusually will be perforated along at least two adjacent edges running atright angles to each other. Adjacent perforations in the card areusually equally spaced or spaced in whole multiplesof the closest spacedperforations. To simplify explanation, it will be assumed the adjacentperforations in the cards are all equally spaced, although those skilledin the art will appreciate that some of the adjacent perforations couldbe spaced two or three times as far apart as the adjacent perforationsmost closely spaced without causing any difficulty. In fact, if theholes in the board are arranged to correspond, even cards withirregularly spaced perforations could be sorted by the presentapparatus.

The number and spacing of the perforations in the cards to be sortedwill dictate the arrangement of the holes in the board 4 if an apparatusof maximum efficiency is desired. The horizontal row of holes designatedby the reference character A (see Fig. 2) will correspond in the numberof holes and spacing thereof to the number of perforations and spacingthereof in the longer side of the cards to be sorted. The row of holesB, starting from approximately the center of the row of holes A, extendstherefrom in a downward direction at an angle of approximately 45 to thehorizontal with adjacent holes spaced apart the same distance asadjacent perforations in the card. The row of holes C is arrangedsimilarly to the row of holes B except that it runs at an angle ofthereto. The

number of holes in rows B and C are preferably equal to the number ofperforations in the longer side of the cards to be sorted.

To sort a pack of cards into one or more classifications represented byperforations adjacent only one side of the cards, the row of holes A inboard 4 is used. As these holes in row A correspond to the perforationsof the card, a rod 9 is mounted in the hole which will correspond withthe particular perforation in the card for the classification desired.If a sort of cards falling into two classifications is desired, a secondrod 9 is mounted in the hole corresponding with the particularperforation in the card for the second classification desired, and so onif the sort is to include other classifications represented byperforations adjacent a single edge of the card.

With the rod or rods 9 properly mounted in the board 4, the board 4 isadjusted vertically so that the bottom of the pack of cards when thepack is threaded on the rod or rods, will be suspended above the base I,preferably not quite half the width or the length of the cards,depending upon whether the perforations are along the longer or shortersides of the cards. The pack of cards is now threaded on the rod or rods9 by passing each rod through the perforation in the pack correspondingwith the hole in which the rod is mounted and the pack pushed back tothe board 4. The board 4 is then vibrated simply by bending it out ofits normal vertical position and releasing it suddenly, this threaded onthe rod being repeated once or twice as a measure of safety. The effectof the vibration of the board 4 is to cause the pack of cards to spreadout along the slightly declining rod or rods 9 with the result thatevery card which is slotted out to. its edge from the perforationsselected,-will immediately drop while the rest of the pack, of course,will remain suspended on the rod or rods 9.

Due to the fact that the pack of cards is positioned above the base I ata height not greater than the width or length of the cards, dependingupon whether the cards were suspended from their shorter or longersides, together with the cooperation of the scoring on the plate It andthe barrier formed by the buffer plate ii, the cards that have fallenout of the pack, will remain more or less vertical and interleaved withthe cards still suspended by the rod or rods 9. The positoin ofthe'cards after the sort is shown in Fig. 3, spacing of the cards beingexaggerated and the number of cards reduced for purposes ofillustration.

The cards which have dropped down, may now be easily removed by sweepingthem out to the left (looking at Fig. 1), the relative heights ofthebuffer plate I! and upturned end ll of plate they will not interfere.The

l being such that sorted cards are thus obtained, with respect to eachother, in the order in which they occurred in the pack. A further sortor sorts canbe made from the remainder of the pack by changing theposition of the rods and again vibrating the board 4. pack of cards in anew order according to certain classifications, the sorted cards may beor rods so that they are at the front of the pack, the rod or rodschanged for sorting another classification, the board 4 vibrated tosortout the cards falling in this different classification and these cards,in turn, can be threaded on the rods so they are at the front of thepack, and the rods again changed for a third sort. In this manner, anynumber of sorts may be made in a more or less continuous operation.

It will be understood that, if the sort only involves a singleclassification at'a time and, hence, the use of only one rod during eachvibrating step, a second rod will be threaded through the selectedperforation in the pack of cards and mounted in the corresponding holein the board 4 for the second sort after the first sort has been madeand before the first rod is removed.

It has been discovered that the combination of the slight cant of therod 9 from the horizontal and the vibratory motion imparted to the board4 has the result of slightly separating each card in the pack from itsneighbor and allowing the appropriately slotted cards to fall withoutfail. The infallibility with which this device sorts even the largestpacks of cards, is one of its outstanding advantages over the devicesheretofore known. If a sorting device cannot be absolutely relied uponexcept after a careful check, this whole system of sorting cards is oflimited practical value.

When a sort of a pack of cards is required with respect to twoclassifications, one represented by a perforation adjacent one edge ofthe cards and the other represented by a perforation adjacent anadjoining edge with which the first edge makes a right angle, the tworows of holes designated B and C are used. The ma- Also, if the objectis to get the whole nipulation of the rods 9 is no different basicallythan previously described except that one rod will be mounted in theappropriate hole in row B and another rod in the appropriate hole in rowC. The pack of cards must be threaded on the rods by passing the rodsthrough the perforations particular holes in board 4 in which the rodsare mounted. Inthis way thepack of cards will be suspended as shown inFig. 4 with the two upper edgesof the cards running at an angle ofapproximately to the horizontal because the rows B and C run at thisangle.

with the cards suspended as shown in Fig. 4, vibration of the board 4will immediately cause all of the cards slotted out to their edge at theparticular perforations through which the rods pass, to drop down. Whilesome slight variation of the 45 angle to the horizontal made by rowsBand C, can be tolerated, particularly if the-slot in the cards fromperforation to edge of the card is appreciably wider than the diameterof the rod, this 45 angle, with-a permissible latitude of a few degrees,is critical in that the cards will not drop down if the rows B and C arearranged at any other angle. This is an observation the prior artapparently never made or appreciated and is the reason for thearrangement of the rows of holes B and C in the board 4 whereby aso-called angle-sort can be effected.

In mak ng an angle-sort the height of the board 4 will be adjusted sothat the cards which drop down, will remain interleaved with those stillsuspended in the rods: just as in the case of a sort made with the rodsin holes in row A.

It will be understood that the apparatus shown in the drawing is merelyillustrative and, although it is a preferred embodiment of applicant'sinvention, it may be varied widely without departing from the scope ofapplicant's invention. While it may involve loss of some of theadvantages of the apparatus as illustrated,

it will be apparent that considerable simplification of the apparatusmay be readily effected. For example, the board 4 andvthe upright 2 Imay be made as a unitary structure so long as it is free to vibrate atits upper end. Also, for sorting cards falling into a singleclassification, it is only necessary ed on the upright member, providedthe rod extends substantially horizontally but slightly declinedtherefrom when supporting a pack of cards. I

The arrangement of the holes as shown in the board 4, is the preferred,one but the rows B and C may be omitted entirely if the anglesort"feature of the device is not desired and it is not necessary that rows Band C bear the particular relation to row A that is illustrated althoughthis arrangement permits the use of a minimum sized board with the rows,corresponding to the longer sides of the cards to be sorted.

Instead of employing an upright member 2 -of springy material anddepending. on its resiliency to'effect vibration of the board 4, it willbe obvious that the upright member 2 could have its upper end hinged toits lower end so that the upper and could be vibrated or oscillated backand forth by hand or a mechanical device; such an arrangement would notnecessitate making the upright of springy material.

While the invention has been described up to this point asvhaving therods extend from the that a single rod be mount;-

board at an angle slightly declined from the horizontal, at least whenthe rods are bearing the weight of the cards to be sorted, and this is agreatly preferred form of the invention, especially in a manuallyoperated device as shown, nevertheless the invention does comprise adevice in which the rods extend substantially horizontally even thoughnot actually declined from the horizontal.

If the rods extend from the board definitely at an angle inclined to thehorizontal, the present apparatus will not work as the cards will simplytend to pack together against the board and the slotted cards will notbe free to drop. However, if the rods are substantially horizontal, thecards do separate out along the rods when the board oscillates in thedirection the rods extend, and do not have much tendency to slide backwhen the board swings back. Hence, particularly when the board will bevibrated vigorously, it is entlrely possible to have the rods extendingsub- 7 stantially parallel when they bear the weight of the cards beingsorted. This would not be preferred in a device to be operated manuallybut, if the device were combined with some power driven mechanical meansfor vibrating the board, the convenience in mountingthe rods exactlyhorizontal would in many instances offset the advantage derived fromhaving the rods -slightly declined.

An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a sortingdevice adapted to sort at one time a far larger pack of cards than couldbe sortedpractically in the heretofore known devices. A furtheradvantage is that a sort of cards may be made much more readily andquick ly and substantially lnfallibly by an operator using applicantsdevice; this device practically eliminates error due to the humanelement. Another substantial advantage is that the operation of thepresent device is less tiring to the operator than operation ofpreviously used devices and the sorting of large sized cards is greatlyfacilitated.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention in the drawing the .cardsmay be sorted with ease into two, three or more classificationsrepresented by perforations along adjoining edges of the cards, at onetime; further, the cards which fall down in a sort, are held in uprightposition, interleaved with the cards which did not fall down, and intheir original order. As

explained before, this device is particularly.

adapted for making a continuous type of sort for placing a pack of cardsin order according to some classification; this is of real practicalutility as large packs of cards frequently have to be put inalphabetical order according to name, subject, or the like, and this hasbeen a long and arduous task when using the devices heretoforeavailable. I

As many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to beunderstood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodimentsshown except as defined in the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for sorting cards each of which is provided adjacentan edge with a plurality of perforations adapted to be slotted out tosaid edge, the combination of a base, an upright member mounted thereon,and a rod carried by said upright member at a height greaterrod'extendlng substantially horizontally and said upright member beingso constructed that its upper end is free to vibrate.

2. In an apparatus for sorting cards each of which is provided adjacentan edge with a plurality of perforations adapted to be slotted out tosaid edge, the combinationof a base, an upright member mounted thereon,a board carried in vertical position by said upright member, said boardbeing provided with a plurality of holes, and a rod removably mounted inone of said holes at a height greater than the width of the cards to besorted, said rod extending at an angle slightly declined from thehorizontal when passed through -a perforation in a pack of said cardsand bearing the weight of said pack, and said upright member being soconstructed that its upper end is free to vibrate.

3. In an apparatus for sorting cards each of which is provided adjacentan edge with a row of perforations adapted to be slotted out to saidedge, the combination of a base, a spring steel upright member mountedthereon with its upcorresponding in spacing to the perforations in thanthe width of the cards to be sorted, said ly declined from the per endfree to vibrate, a board carried in vertical position by said uprightmember, said board being provided with a horizontal row of holes thecards to be sorted, and a rod removably mounted in oneof said holes insaid board at a height greater than the width of the cards to be sorted,said rod extending at an angle slighthorizontal when passed throughperforations in a pack of said cards and bearing the weight of saidpack.

4. In an apparatus for sorting cards each of which is provided adjacentan edge with a row of perforations adapted to be slotted-out to said.

edge, the combination of a base, a spring steel upright member mountedthereon with its upper end free to vibrate, a vertically adjustableboard carried in vertical position by said upright member, said boardbeing provided with a horizontal row of holes corresponding in spacingto the perforations in the cards to be sorted, and a rod removablymounted in one of said holes in said board at a height greater than thewidth of the cards to be sorted, said rod extending at an angle slightlydeclined from the horizontal when passed through perforations in a pack.of said cards and bearing the weight of said pack.

5. In an apparatus for sorting cards of the type wherein each card has arow of perforations adjacent each of two adjoining edges forming a rightangle and each perforation is adapted to be slotted out to the adjacentedge of the card, the combination of a support, a vertically positionedboard carried by said support, said board being provided with twomeeting rows of rod engaging elements corresponding in spacing to theperforations in the cards to be sorted and said rows running atapproximately to each other downwardly from their point of meeting at anangle of approximately 45 to the horizontal, and two rods removablymounted in said board, one in a rod engaging element in one of said rowsand the other in a rod engaging element in the other of said rows, andextending substantially horizontally from said board.

6. In an apparatus for sorting cards of the type wherein each card has arow of perforations adjacent each of two adjoining edges forming a rightangle and each perforation is adapted to be slotted out to the adjacentedge of the card, the combination of a support, a vertically positionedboard carried by said support, said ning at approximately 90 to eachother downwardly from their point of meeting at an angle ofapproximately 45 to the horizontal, and a row of holes corresponding innumber and spacing to the perforations adjacent the longer edge of thecards to be sorted, and with two further rows of holes corresponding innumber and spacing to the perforations adjacent to the longer edge ofthe cards to be sorted, said latter two rows meeting at the center ofsaid first row and running at approximately 90 to each: other rodremovably'mounted in one of said holes in said board and extendingsubstantially horizontally from said board.

7. In an apparatus for sortingcards of the type wherein each card has arow of perforations adjacent each of two adjoining edges forming a rightangle and each perforation is adapted to be slotted out to the adjacentedge of the card, the combination of a base, an upright member .ofspringy material mounted thereon with its upper end free to vibrate, aboard carried in vertical position by said upright member, said boardbeing provided with two meeting rows of holes corresponding in spacingto the perforations in the cards to be, sorted and said rows running atapproximately 90 to each other downwardly from their point of meeting atan angle of approximately 45 to the horizontal, and two rods removablymounted in said board, one in a hole in one of said rows and the otherin a hole in the other of said rows, and extending at an angle slightlydeclined from the horizontal when passed through perforations in a packof said cards and bearing the weight of said pack.

8. In an apparatus for sorting cards of the type wherein each card has arow of perforations adjacent each of two adjoining edges forming a rightangle and each perforation is adapted to be slotted out to the adjacentedge of the .card, the combination of a base, a spring steel uprightmember mounted thereon with its upper end free to vibrate, a verticallyadjustable board carried in vertical position by said upright member,said board being provided with two meeting rows of holes correspondingin spacing to the perforations in the cards to be sorted and said rowsrunning at approximately 90 to each other downwardly from their point ofmeeting at an angle of approximately 45 to the horizontal, and two rodsremovably mounted in said board, one in a hole in one of said rows andthe other in a hole inthe other of said rows, and extending at an angleslightly declined from the horizontal when passed through perforationsin a pack of said cards and bearing the weight of said pack.

9. In an apparatus for sorting cards of the type wherein each cardhas arow of perforations adjacent each of two adjoining edges iormingdownwardly from their point of meeting at an angle of approximately 45'to the horizontal, and a rod removably mounted in one of said holes insaid board and extending at an angle slightly declined from thehorizontal when passedthrough perforations in a pack of said cards andbearing the weight of said pack.

10. In an apparatus for sorting cards of the type wherein each card hasa row of perforations adjacent each of two adjoining edges forming aright angle and each perforation is adapted to be slotted out to theadjacent edge of the card, thecombination of a base, a spring steelupright member mounted thereon with its upper end free to vibrate, avertically adjustable board carried in vertical position by said uprightmember, said board being provided with a horizontal row of holescorresponding in number and spacing to the perforations adjacent thelonger edge 'of the cards to be sorted, and with two further rows ofholes corresponding in numher and spacing to the perforations adjacent-to the longer edge of the cards to be sorted,

,one of said holes in said board and extending at an angle slightlydeclined from the horizontal when passed through perforations in a packof said cards and bearing the weight of said pack.

11. In an apparatus for sorting cards each of which is provided adjacentan edge with a plurality of perforations adapted to be slotted out tosaid edge, the combination of a base, an upright member mounted thereon,and a rod carried by said upright member at a height greater than thewidth of the'cards to be sorted, said rod extending at an angle slightlydeclined from the horizontal when passed through a perforation in a packof said cards and bearing the weight of said pack, and said uprightmember being so constructed that its upper end is free to vibrate.

12. In an apparatus for sorting cards each of a a right angle and eachperforation is adapted to be slotted out to the adjacent edge of thecard. the combination of a base, an upright member of springy materialmounted thereon with its upper end free to vibrate, a board carried invertical position by said upright member, said board being provided witha horizontal which is provided adjacent an edge with a plurality ofperforations adapted to be slotted out to said edge, the combination ofa base, an upright member mounted thereon, a board carried in verticalposition by said upright member. said board being provided with aplurality of rod engaging elements,- and a rod removabl mounted in oneof said'rod engaging elements at a height greater than the width of thecards to besorted, said rod extending substantially horizontally andsaid upright member being so constructed that its upper end is free tovibrate.

JOHN P DUANE.

